White Hat
by Scarlet Phlame
Summary: Hatter and Jack have been banished to the world from which there is no return. Somehow, Hatter discovers Jack isn't as much as annoying imbecile as she perceived him to be. Well, not like she REALLY has to like him, she's only spending the rest of forever with him. (I own nothing.) Based off of Frank Wildhorn's musical, Wonderland. They've gone past the point of no return.
1. Chapter 1

When Hatter opened her eyes, she was greeted by pitch-black darkness. As emotions and nothingness swirled around her in disturbing waves, embracing her in a icy grip, she put a hand up to the wall to steady herself. Wait. A wall? She groped around for something, maybe... a light switch? A voice from the other side of the room in darkness jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Where...?" She pursed her lips, not knowing whether or not she ought to respond to this comment, this question, and yet, she didn't know. A wicked smile conquered her lips, and she patted around her waist to find her dagger, but it was evidently gone. It must have scattered a few feet away, and she cursed under her breath. Here she was, with that idiot Jack, and they were to be trapped here for all eternity.

There was a long pause, and Jack spoke again.

"Hatter?"

There was a long moment of silence.

"I have a name, you know," Hatter admitted, hoping to distract him enough to find her dagger.

"And I have your dagger, you know." Hatter froze, not knowing what to say in response to this.

"I..." Anger welled up inside her, threatening to burst in an explosion of fiery emotion. "How did you..." She heard the faint sound of chuckling from the other end of the room.

"You so kindly decided to plant it in my arm while we were falling..." His voice trailed off, and it was only then when Hatter realized how weak, how hurt and tired he sounded.

Oh, well, it was a pity she couldn't see him suffer.

"Ha." Though she tried, she couldn't rid herself of that sinking feeling she had.

"Yes, laugh, but in the end, you lost, and good won." She impatiently drummed her fingernails against the wall.

"Will you be okay?" She managed to ask, but she felt the blush heating up her cheeks in the manner a match lights up kerosene. Why did that have to come out so...?

"What do you think?" Jack asked, voice laced with uncertainty and... was that amusement?

"Where are you, maybe I can help," Hatter said, although she was pleased it was dark, because Jack couldn't see her numb expression.

Jack chuckled.

"Yes, well, come over here and kill me already. I won't last long, anyway."

Hatter paused.

"Jack... I was going to help you," she said, hoping he would say something, so she could follow the sound of his voice to his location.

"Yes... someone like you would do that," Jack said, and Hatter snickered at his placement of words. One would think he would at least use some wit. At least she had brains under this hat.

"There," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder, and she felt him stiffen. "Stay still, now, where is your arm?" she coolly demanded, not wanting to grope around for it. "Well?"

She felt something sticky on the back of her glove, and it was then she realized he was bleeding all over her. She hastily tossed the ruined glove off to the side, after all, not like she was going to need it anymore, not as long she was here.

There was a long pause as Hatter wrapped the velvety material of a hat ribbon tightly around his wound. Jack was the first to break the silence.

"Why are you doing this?" He murmured, chuckling slightly.

"Where's that knife?" Hatter asked, ignoring his comment.

"You didn't answer my question," Jack said, and she could hear the smirk in his tone.

"I don't care," Hatter snapped, and finally located the dagger scattered a few inches away.

"What's the point in helping me if you're just going to kill me anyway?" Jack quipped, and Hatter snorted.

"I already told you I wasn't going to kill you, I wouldn't dirty a perfectly good blade," Hatter mused, slipping the dagger back into the sheath. "Can you get up?" Jack chuckled.

"I don't think an arm injury is going to prevent my walking abilities," he replied coolly, and hatter rolled her eyes in annoyance before helping him up.

"Why are you doing this?" Jack repeated, and Hatter shook her head.

"You sound like a broken record," she commented, back on the wall and patting around for something. "Well, you kind of are broken, but I hate being around parrots, they're awfully noisy, don't you agree?" she paused for a moment. "Don't answer that, I don't want to hear your opinion," she mumbled, although his chuckle was loud and clear.

"I wasn't going to." Hatter frowned.

"Wait... shhh..." Jack furrowed his brow.

"Why-"

"Shut up," Hatter commanded, knocking on the wall's surface. "There's another side to this room," she declared, banging against the surface.

"And how do you propose that will help us? For all we know, we break out of here and walk right off the edge of this realm." Jack paused, kicking some rocks.

Wait, rocks?"

Bile surged in his throat as he realized what this was.

"A little skeleton bother you?" Hatter asked, chuckling to herself. "At this rate, you'll never become a knight," she mused, trying to knock the wall over with the handle of her dagger. She froze when she heard the clink of metal against metal.

"This is a door," Hatter said in realization, firmly gripping and shaking the handle with a hand.

"Why don't you open it?" Jack asked, and Hatter rolled her eyes.

"Why don't you use your brain for once? If you even had one," she quipped. "I doubt I'd be able to turn anything into tapioca down here, shame." She shook her head. "It's locked." Jack's eyes widened.

"Oh gods, does that mean we're trapped down here?" Jack said, his voice reaching an octave higher. "Oh, no, I wanted to get a wife, and have kids, and kill a dragon, and-" Hatter frowned, before kicking the door down. Light flooded into the room.

"You talk to much," she muttered. "Do you ever let anyone else talk?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Wow," Jack said. "Congratulations, you just kicked down the door to the middle of nowhere." Which was true, in a way, there was nothing but a empty sea of rough waves battling for current out here. Who had told anyone that there was a door opening directly to the sea? Hatter sank to her knees, defeated.

"I just figured..." Her voice trailed off.

"You never told me your name." Hatter glared at him. "Well, I suppose it isn't that important, seeing as we're only going to be here all eternity," Jack commented.

"You mean until we starve to death," Hatter quipped chuckling silently to herself. "It's Ecila. Do you really have to ask?" Hatter mumbled, staring hollowly out, expression as empty as the room they were in.

"Ha, I see what you did there, very clever," Jack mumbled, peering out into the ocean. "Wonder if there's any fish in there. Maybe we could find something to eat," he mused.

"Or, I could just eat you," she said, and Jack froze, kind of going white. "That was a quip, honey." she winked at him, and then dipped one hand into the water, before scrubbing some of the red liquid on her hand off. "Here, you might want to clean up," she mused, scooting over to the side.

"And how do I know that you eating me isn't a quip? You look hungry enough." Hatter chuckled.

"It's called trust." Jack hesitantly made his way over to the water, before splashing some onto his wound, which vanished right before their eyes. "Whoa, what the hell is that stuff?" Jack murmured, amused.

"I don't know, I haven't ever been here before," Ecila mumbled. She turned, but something in the distance caught her eye. "Wait a minute..." she squinted a little harder. "I'm pretty sure that table wasn't over there," she said, hesitantly taking a step closer. A little bottle appeared on the surface of the table.

"This is really starting to creep me out," Jack admitted, creeping closer to the table. Hatter rolled her eyes. Again.

"You don't say," she said sharply, picking up the bottle, and taking a sip. "Mm," she mumbled, before she realized she was half the height of Jack, maybe around the size of Chloe, Alice's daughter. "Oh, you've got to me kidding me," she said, stomping her foot. "So it doesn't do anything to me, but it makes you bigger." A door came into sight at the edge of the room.

"Oh, well, if you don't mind, I'm just going to take my exit," she said, defiantly heading for the door, only to find it was locked.

"Dammit, I would kick down this door if it wasn't so large," Hatter cursed, attempting to stab at the ridiculously sized door.

"I have the key," Jack said, his voice booming from the other side of the room.

"Well, you better sure as hell hand it over!" Hatter shouted to make herself heard.

"Hmm... I don't think I will," Jack teased, dangling the keys from what seemed miles away, and it was then Hatter realized how much smaller she had become.

"To hell with you," Hatter said bluntly.

"If you say please I'll give it to you."

"Please," Hatter said, easily annoyed by how fast Jack crouched down and unlocked the door with the key, which was about the size of her.

"You coming?" Hatter asked, irked with herself for silently wanting him to come with her.

"Why does it matter so much I come with you?" Hatter paused.

"Maybe I just want more than a shoe to talk to," she shot back.

"Well said," Jack said, taking a swig out of the bottle.


	3. Chapter 3

"Pathetic," Hatter mused as she treaded through the door and into the streets of none other than New York. "What kind of place is this anyway?" She asked, inspecting a ratty-looking lamppost. "I imagine they need a new leader. But this does look shockingly familiar to the place where I found that little... nuisance, Chloe." Jack glared at her.

"Don't talk about Alice's daughter that way." Hatter chuckled.

"Aren't you a perfect little-" she jumped out of the way to avoid being run flat over by a car. "Imbecile!" She shouted at the passing taxi, stepping back up onto the sidewalk. Jack chuckled.

"Karma," He whispered under his breath, making Hatter stomp her foot.

"I should be the Queen of all Queens right now, and what do I get for my valiant fight? I get to be here, cursed to spend eternity with the likes of you." Her hat slipped a little, but she easily and swiftly replaced it on her head.

"What is your big fascination with hats, anyway?" Jack mused, chuckling to himself as a replay of the taxi ran through his head.

"I'm the Mad Hatter. Why do you think I like hats?" Jack shook his head.

"That isn't an answer."

"Fine, then, why do you like swords, or (k)night school, or whatever?" Jack narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"How do you know I attend-"

"Oh, look," Hatter said, ignoring Jack's snarky comment. "There's a person. Shall we ask him if he knows the way back to Wonderland?" Jack shrugged.

"Your choice, Queen Hatter," he said, making a sour face at the sound of those words. "You know, I doubt you'd make a good Queen, anyway. It just doesn't flow. Besides, what would you do, put a crown on that hat of yours?" Hatter scowled at him, before strutting off to the older man walking by.

"Pardon me, do you know the way back up to our world?" The man, with rather straggly hair, squinted at her.

"Yowzers, are you on some sort of play? Love the costume." Hatter frowned.

"Excuse me, I asked you a very simple question. Do you know the way back to Wonderland?" The man chuckled.

"Youth these days... you must be on a show or something. Well, I really have no advice, just, maybe... follow your script." He waved a hand dismissively, running a hand through his sparse hairdo.

"How rude," Hatter said, scoffing. "He should know how to treat someone like me," she said, doing a little twirl. Jack chuckled.

"Treat someone like you," he mocked, and it was then Hatter realized he was sitting on a brick wall.

"I would love to push you off that thing," she mumbled. "I wonder if this road leads somewhere," she wondered aloud, and Jack rolled his eyes. "This place makes me rather... curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat," he said, inspecting the back of his hand.

"No, it just made him cease to be invisible."

"You know what I mean. Maybe one of those carts is going to run you over," he said, chuckling to himself.

"Idiot, those are called cars. Never been to the real world?" Jack shook his head.

"Why, have you?"

"Of course, it's where I got... Chloe," she said, speaking the word Chloe in the manner one would say "anaconda".

"Oh, I see, you stalked her to her home, where you kidnapped her."

"We... went for a walk," Hatter said, secretly thinking to herself that this was a much softer option.

"Sure you did."

Hatter pushed him off of the wall.


	4. Chapter 4

Hatter grinned evilly, yes, this was a perfect advantage for her. She would conquer this world, and then she would be the Queen of all Queens-

A muffled groan coming from the other side of the wall snapped her out of her thoughts, and, rolling her eyes and mocking Jack's pained groan, she headed over to the other side of the wall.

"Life sucks, doesn't it?" she asked brutally, brushing away a strand of scarlet flyaway hair that was obscuring her vision.

"I think it hurts more," Jack said, trying to pull himself up with the help of the rail alongside the wall.

"Ha. Tears are coming out of my nose. Come on, we have somewhere to be going." Jack snickered.

"And where is that?"

"I'm... going to TAKE OVER THIS WORLD! I WILL BE THE QUEEN OF ALL QUEENS!" Hatter declared, and Jack doubled over in silent mock laughter.

"You're starting to sound like the Queen," Jack mentioned, rubbing his temples.

"Well, thank you, it's about time you treated me like a queen," Hatter said, smoothing out the rough purple fabric of her hat, well, what was left of the crumpled object. Her attention steadily wandered, and her gaze lifted onto a very familiar apartment.

"Well, well, look what's here," she said, realizing that this was none other than dear Alice's apartment building. "Apparently Alice is home at last," she said, slyly tracing a finger along the firm stitching of her hat. Jack's eyes widened.

"What does this even mean? I thought we were banished to the world from which there is no return," He mused, heading in the direction of the building. Hatter snickered, still leaning against the lamppost, still playing with her hat.

"Don't you see, Jack? Alice doesn't need you anymore, she has her husband," Hatter said.

"That's a lie."

"Is it? How about you go and knock on her little door and see who answers?" Jack narrowed his eyes.

"And how would you know such a thing?"

"My dear Jack, I am Alice's counterpart. Were you not listening, or were you too busy playing with your hair?" Jack's hand instinctively shot up to his hair.

"I was not playing with my hair," he said, although his voice lacked the steady conviction it should've held.

"And I completely believe you."

"What is the real reason you want to kill Alice, Hatter?" Hatter chuckled.

"I already told you. Two pieces cannot occupy the same space," she said simply, as if she was discussing something such as nail polish and not the death of her counterpart.

"That rule doesn't count if two pieces are one. You are both each other. Besides, aren't there two queens in chess?" Hatter frowned.

"And tell me, Jack, what happens to the other queen once the game has ended?" Jack was silent. "My point exactly. I am and will be the ending of her fairytale. This will be MY happy ending, this will be the conclusion to my story!" Hatter was shouting now, and she couldn't seem to control the wave of emotions surging from her heart and out of her mouth. "I never asked for any of this. I didn't want to be a counterpart of anything, I-" she stopped midway in her rant as soon as she realized that Jack was gawking at her. She held the words in she so desperately wanted to say.

"Just go," she whispered.


	5. Chapter 5

There wasn't much that slipped past Jack.

He knew when something was up, and he could tell when someone was lying, or when someone was telling the truth.

But, in all honesty, he had never expected to see something like this.

Hatter had been right, he realized, looking through the peephole of Alice's apartment.

He saw everything.

No, there wasn't much that slipped past Jack.

He saw him, that man, and Alice together.

It made his heart break to realize that Hatter had been exactly right, that in the end, there would be no one else left to turn to.

Yes, before he had wondered what her past must've done to make her like the way she was now, but he finally thought he understood what she must've felt like. She'd probably felt like a counterpart of something, something incomplete, unfinished.

Which was what he felt like right now without Alice.

* * *

"Hey." Hatter looked up from what appeared to be a feather from her hat.

"You're back awfully early," she said, and her attention gradually wandered back to the soft black tendrils of the feather. She snorted slightly, like her own way of saying "I told you so."

They stood a few more moments in silence, and then Jack spoke up.

"How did we end up here? Weren't we banished for all eternity down there?" Hatter shrugged, toying with the feather.

"That curse was meant to keep us unhappy for all eternity... so I suspect we're here so now you can see the sad truth about your dear Alice... It doesn't bother me, though, because I've always been this way."

"Hatter..."

She shook her head and frowned. "No, I don't want to hear what you have to say, I DON'T CARE. Let's just get out of here, maybe go someplace else." Her gaze lifted off of the feather, and she glanced around for a brief second. She sighed impatiently, tapping her foot against the cold stone sidewalk. "Drat, but where is the exit?" The parallel door had vanished. Did that mean they were trapped here?

"The door is gone," Jack said simply. Hatter rolled her eyes.

"I just pointed that out. Idiot," she added, so it would seem like she was making a point.

"What are we gonna do now?" Hatter scrutinized him.

"Well, you could go and jump off a cliff or try to dance with your boy-band on the road, for all I care, after all, I don't see anyone here who would miss you," she spat. Jack chuckled.

"That sentence was a run-on sentence."

"And I care, because...?" Jack sighed.

"Really, Hatter, I think you should put down your walls there, just for a second, because we are out here, in the middle of gods know where, and the only way we can survive out here in this desolate place is if we use two heads instead of one." Hatter snorted.

"If New York is desolate, then my whole life has been a lie," she said, trying to scrape a sticky substance off of her fingernail. "And the only place I would put your head would be on a stake." Jack swallowed.

"Well, where are we going next?" Hatter glared at Jack.

"Where do you think? I already told you, there IS nowhere to go, come on. We don't have a car, and besides, if we did, I would gladly run you over with it. Not to mention the fact that-" Hatter stopped speaking when Jack walked right up to her and pulled her in for an abrupt kiss.

"You know, you really need to know when to shut up."

* * *

**_Argh, so this chapter felt REALLY awkward to write. Not even kidding, I made myself blush while writing this. Everything just felt really... corny! And not in the intentional way, either. I think I might come back later and do some editing. :P Anyway, I'm trying to make Hatter as non-Mary Sue as possible, not sure how that's working, and my Jack really feels like Fiyero (from Wicked) right now._**

**_I suppose the Jack/Hatter action was coming up, anyway, I really can't resist bizarre pairings like that, although I'm sure I'm gonna piss a few Jack/Alice people off._**

**_Please give me your honest feedback, and I will see you all next chapter!_**


	6. Chapter 6

"Alice is gone five minutes, and you start kissing another woman? Tsk, tsk, tsk. What am I going to do with you?" Hatter asked sardonically, a mirthless grin displayed across her face. "You sure make your moves fast, I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of heroic." Jack frowned.

"In all honesty, I don't know why I even like you. A few minutes ago you tried to kill me," he pointed out, and Hatter just shrugged. She really didn't know what to make of this situation, although she supposed maybe Jack was just confused, or he had too much of something to drink on his way back here. Way too much. Hatter frowned a moment, noticing something in her pocket.

"That's funny," she said, pulling none other than the White Rabbit's watch out of her pocket. "I didn't know I had this in here," she said, inspecting it carefully. Jack stared at it hungrily.

"Hatter, do you know that we have a way back home now? We can use it to send us back in time to before the Queen banished us here!" Hatter's eyes glinted with excitement.

"Let's try it, then." She prepared to send Jack back, but he shook his head.

"Believe it or not, I don't know if I trust you... just let me send you back." Hatter rolled her eyes, although she had an inklet that this was just an excuse to send her back first.

"Wait a minute... this won't be able to teleport us back home," Jack realized miserably. Hatter grinned.

"No, you see, this curse is meant to prevent us from returning back home, so we're here for all eternity. But if we can turn ourselves back before we were cursed, I can use this..." Hatter presented her hat, and placed it on the floor. "To take us home. You see, this is no ordinary hat. It can transport people between worlds." She smiled at the expression on Jack's face. He looked down at the hat, then back up at the watch in Hatter's hand.

"This can work."

"Of course it can. Here." she handed Jack the watch, watching him inspect it.

"You ready?" She nodded simply, slightly nervous, but yes, she was ready.

* * *

_**I apologize for the short chapter, but it was required to have this length if I want to have a proper ending, which is actually two different endings. I'll be posting two alternate endings, so stay tuned! :)**_


	7. Light Ending (Happy Ending)

"No, it didn't. I'm sorry, Hatter." She sighed, and picked up her beloved hat from the ground, dusting it off a bit.

"There's no need to apologize, Jack. We did all that we could." Jack stood still for a moment, carefully and quietly scrutinizing Hatter.

"You always liked me, didn't you?" He asked after a long moment of silence. She looked up at him and sneered.

"What makes you think that?" He shook his head.

"It's just the way you look at me... sure, when you first saw me, all you really did was sneer. But every now and then, I catch a glimpse of you looking at me the way Alice does." She frowned.

"Is that the only reason you like me, because I remind you of Alice? Because we're the same person, just different sides of the table?" Jack shook his head.

"No... I like you because you are your own invention, you're true to yourself." Hatter snorted.

"Where did you get that one, Shakespeare? Don't think I didn't recognize your previous quotation." Jack frowned in funny way.

"Sorry." Was all he said, before letting his gaze crash onto the floor.

"Where do we go from here?" Hatter asked softly, which was very out of character for a person like her. "I don't know why the path is unclear... I always had something to do, something to keep me going, but there's nothing here for me," she said. Jack sighed.

"Well, you always have me," he suggested, grinning crookedly. Hatter frowned.

"Funny... I don't think that was on the list..." And, to both of their surprise, Hatter smiled. It wasn't an evil grin, or a smirk, or a mirthless gesture, it was genuine, and both of them could see it clear as water. "But, then again... I haven't been one to follow the rules much..." Jack smiled back.

"You and I, we make a pretty good team." Hatter laughed.

"Well, just know, whatever we have to face from here on now, we face it together."


	8. Dark Ending (Sad Ending)

She saw Jack fiddle with the watch a little, saw a flash of light, then nothing at all. Memories swirled around emptily inside her mind, and rushed back to her in a single instant, and she was sent spinning.

"Did it work?" she asked, once the world was no longer a nauseating mess. He smiled.

"I believe so." She grinned widely, and took the watch from him.

"You sure this is what you want?" Jack nodded, although she could see he was equally nervous.

In a fast instant, Jack was sent spinning, and then, everything was nothing.

"You okay?" Jack nodded sheepishly.

"Just a little dizzy, is all."

She nodded and got on her knees, gripping the rim of the hat. "This should work, if I still have enough power to send us back." She took a deep breath, before spinning the hat. Nothing happened at first, it just teetered and wobbled, but somehow, instead of losing momentum, it gained it, and a purple vortex opened up before them. "Ready?" she shouted above the loud whistling sound the rush of air around them made. Jack nodded, and grabbed her hand.

"We jump... NOW!" she yelled, and the pair tumbled into the portal.

* * *

She awoke once more in that pitch-black room, disappointment setting in. But, it didn't matter. She had Jack, now.

"It didn't work, Jack," she said miserably.

"I know. I'm sorry." She shook her head, and although the room should've been dark, it was only slightly illuminated because of the light streaming in from the doorway.

"Who are you talking to?" A voice came from across the room, and she realized it was the March Hare. What was he doing here? "Me?" Hatter furrowed her brow in suspicion.

"You shouldn't be here... what are you doing down here, anyway?" March shrugged, and quietly responded.

"The Queen banished me here for being your accomplice... and a traitor... But who is that you're talking to?"

Jack looked at Hatter, then back at the March Hare. Hatter frowned.

"Never mind him Jack... he's probably just going mad." she smiled at him, and it took a minute for the March Hare to realize what was going on here. "I'm okay, as long as you're here with me."

"Hatter... there isn't anyone next to you." The March Hare pointed out, and Hatter rolled her eyes, before turning back to Jack to complain, but he was gone.

"Jack? Where did you go? Jack! JACK!" The March Hare stared at her for a moment.

"Hatter... your hands are covered in blood." Realization dawned on him. "You killed Jack." Hatter shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

"No. NO. I didn't kill him. He was hurt, and that water magically healed him. I DIDN'T KILL HIM!" The March Hare decided it was time to create a distance between the two.

"You've gone mad," he whispered grimly.

"No, no. I haven't." The Hatter chuckled. "Jack is here. He's here somewhere, I know he is." She frantically scoured the room. "Jack, Jack, where are you? Jack? Jack!"

But there was no one there to answer her cries.

She couldn't find the March Hare, he had vanished as suddenly as Jack, and she was alone, alone in the great room of darkness.

Hours later, Hatter found Jack, slumped up against the wall, right next to the rushing waves of the sea, and she cradled his body close to hers.

"There, there, it's all right, I'll take care of you from now on."

As the door creaked shut, the last bit of light vanished, and the room was sealed in darkness for all eternity.


End file.
